GE2020: Heng Swee Keat’s team wins narrowly in East Coast GRC

Singapore — The East Coast GRC saw the People’s Action Party (PAP) contesting against the Workers’ Party (WP).

The PAP team, which was helmed by Mr Heng Swee Keat, consisted of Dr Maliki Osman, Mr Tan Kiat How, Ms Cheryl Chan and Ms Jessica Tan. The WP team was made up of Mr Kenneth Foo, Mr Abdul Shariff bin Aboo Kassim, Mr Terence Tan, Mr Dylan Ng and Ms Nicole Seah.

The PAP team won with 53.41% of the vote against the WP team.

The constituency saw a surprise on Nomination Day, with Mr Heng moving there from his previous ward, Tampines GRC.

In the 2015 elections, the PAP won with 60.7% of the vote against WP. This was the PAP’s worst performing GRC that year.

In a Facebook livestream posted on Mr Heng’s Facebook page, he thanked the WP team for giving the PAP team a “strong contest”. The video also showed Mr Osman speaking to viewers in Malay. At the end of the video, the five-member PAP East Coast GRC team was seen taking a bow together.

After the results, the WP’s Ms Seah, who seemed to be in high spirits, said that a very large part of East Coast voters showed that they wanted a fairer representation in Parliament. She added that the WP team had given its best. 

Political observer Mustafa Izzudin said on television that the move of Mr Heng to the East Coast GRC probably helped to prevent it from falling to the WP. /TISG